Mooring Maneuvers

Mooring Maneuvers

A marina management firm is aiming to expand its reach, both in geography and potential clientele, so it can avoid the sinking market.

Going global to defeat the domestic economic slowdown is becoming a necessity for companies up and down the Gulf Coast, as the list of companies looking to make inroads overseas seems to grow daily.

Few businesses, however, are making an international expansion as exotic as Sarasota-based Brandy Marine is. The company, which designs and manages marinas, in addition to consulting with marina developers on new projects, has been working sporadically outside the U.S. for several years.

But its two latest projects, one in Costa Rica and one in the Dominican Republic, couldn't have come at a better time, as the domestic boat market suffers through one of its worst slumps ever.

"A year ago we were getting four to six deals a week," says Brandy Marine founder and chief executive Bruce Blomgren, who added that some of those consulting deals were worth as much as $30,000 each. "Now we are getting one deal a month. This has been one of the toughest periods of my life."

That's saying something, considering Blomgren worked in politics before founding Brandy Marine in 1977. Indeed, Blomgren was a consultant and strategist for two failed state gubernatorial campaigns, in Illinois and Missouri, and then he worked as an advance man for Gerald Ford's unsuccessful presidential campaign against Jimmy Carter in 1976 - so he kind of knows tough times.

But Blomgren is only looking ahead these days, with the Marina Cap Cana project in the Dominican Republic and the Marina Papagayo project in Costa Rica to keep him busy. He's projecting the two new foreign projects will push Brandy Marine into the $2.5 million revenue range next year, a 100% increase over its 2008 revenues of $1.25 million, but still well off its peak reached in the boat boom years earlier this decade.

Cap Cana is the company's newest project. It began managing the marina side of the $1.5 billion luxury resort in September, says Blomgren, after the developers of the property dropped its previous marina property management firm. The resort, which is still not built out, includes partnerships with the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain and a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course.

Meanwhile, the Papagayo project represents an opportunity for Brandy Marine to do more than manage a property. Brandy Marine's role on Papagayo, which like Cap Cana is a luxury resort, is to handle all aspects of the 350-slip marina to be built adjacent to the 2,300-acre resort, on Costa Rica's northwest Pacific coast. That includes handling the design phase, the feasibility studies and marketing of the completed property. Everything but the actual construction.

"This is the kind of project we love," Blomgren says. "No dirt was turned before we got there."

Blomgren is excited about the two international projects for more than the potential revenue boost. He also says these projects will give the company a chance to prove its abilities in the luxury boutique yacht and boat market, which isn't affected by market slowdowns as much as the middle boat market is.

Says Blomgren: "These are the kinds of people that are immune, for the most part, to the economic downturn."

- Mark Gordon